She was trembling so hard and backed up so much against the door, it felt like all her insides were going to spill out. The look on Jace’s face—pitying and horrified—just twisted her stomach more. He reached for her cheek. She tipped her head back, but there was nowhere to go. He held her with a gentle touch that just wrenched the tears from her eyes and made them spill down her face.
“Your father is wrong. About everything, but especially about you.” His words, soft and close, made her tremble. “No true alpha does something like that. No decent man treats a daughter that way. I don’t give a fuck if you’re his biological daughter or not. You were born of his mate, the woman he was supposed to treasure and care for and love above all things. If I had a daughter, you can be sure I would treasure her like the moon and the stars. Like the love I would have for her mother, my mate. You don’t treat a dog the way your father has treated you, much less a beautiful woman. A gorgeous, smart, incredible woman. He’s wrong about everything… and I’m not going to let him manipulate you into doing something that will only get you hurt.”
She wrenched her face out of his hold and turned around to face the door again. She slammed her palm against it once, twice, three times, and let out a growl. Why did Jace have to be such a good man? The kind she could never have. Why did he have to say those words to her? Didn’t he know her anger was the only thing that kept her going?
She grabbed the doorknob and yanked on it, but his hands against the door held it closed. “Let me out of here!” she screamed as she pounded her fist against the wood.
“Piper.” His voice was soft, but with an underlying command tone that rippled through her like a shiver. “Turn around.”
She closed her eyes and let her head fall against the door. Then she turned around, still trapped in the cage of his arms on either side of her, his palms pressed against the door. She looked up into his dark eyes, and they didn’t just hold concern anymore. They were blazing at her with a dark heat that lit fires all over her body.
“You’re not going to leave,” he said, soft and powerful. “You’re going to stay here and do exactly what I tell you.”
A shiver worked its way up her body, coursing heat and lust through her. Her wolf responded to his alpha tone, whimpering for him. The woman in her wanted to protest. The angry girl in her wanted to slam her fists against his chest. But Jace was a better man than any man she’d ever known, and he was looking at her like he wanted her. Not just for sex. Not the way sleazy Michael wanted to fuck her. Jace’s heated, possessive, yet soft-and-caring look said he wanted her in every way—to protect, to keep safe, and to ravish against the door of his bedroom.
She couldn’t force herself to say no.
He leaned in close, his commanding voice strong and soft. “You’re not as wild as you act… not as crazy as you pretend. You’re smart and strong and you don’t need to let that asshole control you anymore. Because you’re not alone. You don’t have to do any of this on your own. Everyone should have someone at their back, and I’m going to be that for you, Piper. I will be there for you, through all of this. To the end.”
His words were an earthquake, shaking her to her core. A small part of her dared to believe him, and that sent even larger shockwaves through her body.
He leaned even closer. “Now kiss me, dammit.”
It was a command, one she didn’t even want to think of disobeying. She leaned forward, closing the small distance left between them, and very tentatively pressed her lips to his. She was trembling so hard, her lips barely brushed against him, but the heat of his lips touching hers raced sparks throughout her body.
“No,” he whispered, his voice husky, “Not like that.” He slid one of his hands away from the door and threaded his fingers through her hair, grabbing a fistful and tilting her head back, lips opening up to him. “Like this.”
Then he crashed his lips into hers, devouring her. His body slammed hers against the door, his leg already between hers, forcing them open. His urgent, powerful kiss and the grip on her hair demanded that she open her mouth to him, not that she even thought of hesitating. His tongue plundered her mouth, demanding that she yield to him even more. Heat flushed hard and fast to her panties, soaking them as his hand found her breast, grabbing and squeezing it and making her moan. The sound echoed a rumbling deep in his chest. Only then did she notice his erection, powerful and rock-hard against her stomach, reminding her of what she first glimpsed on his kitchen floor… and what she’d fantasized about having fill her ever since.